Let me begin by saying that we are so
blessed to have our Growing Tree pre-school.
To our pre-school director, Cathy Bigger
and her dedicated staff, on behalf of First United Methodist Church, we just
want to say thank you for all you do to make this a safe and fun place for the
children who attend our pre-school.
In a ranking of occupations according to
the degree of importance and lack of appreciation, guess which occupation was
at the top of the list? Being a
preschool teacher.
What job can be more important than the
task of caring for a class of young children and helping those children to grow
and learn in a safe environment where they are loved and nurtured?
And
to the children, their parents, and family members who are part of our Growing
Tree program, thank you for choosing this place to bring your children and for
being with us this morning in worship.
We
all know how important it is to offer praise for a job well done. We are to be
generous in our praise. The same is true in giving praise to God.
Psalm 150 is the very last Psalm found in
the Book of Psalms. It is a wonderful
concluding Psalm. In this very short
Psalm of just six verses, the word “praise” appears thirteen times.
In fact, the final five Psalms, Psalm 146
through Psalm 150, all begin and end with the phrase, “Praise the Lord.” It’s like the Bible is sending us a strong
message. Be generous with your praise to
God.
Psalm 150 answers four questions about
what it means for us to praise God. It
answers where, why, how, and who.
Let’s begin with the “where.” The Psalmist begins by saying, “Praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in
his mighty firmament!”
When the Psalmist wrote this, he was
thinking about the Temple as the place to worship God. The Temple was the
central place where the people of Israel believed God resided. The Psalmist
isn’t saying that we shouldn’t praise God in other places, but he is saying
that there is something special about worshipping together in one place as
God’s people.
I’m told that the steeple of our church is
130 feet from the ground. That’s up there really high! It’s so tall that you
can easily see our church when you’re driving on the highway around Athens. We
want people to know that we are a church where all are welcome to come and
worship.
I still remember what one of our former
pastors, Rev. Dan Kiger here at Athens First said about this place a few weeks
ago when he preached a sermon here. He said that because of our unique location
next to the university that God wants our church to be a haven of blessing and
peace.
This is a place where college students can
come and know that God is present in their life as they are away from home and
working on their degree. And at the same time, our church is also a place where
preschool children can come to grow and learn. Actually, this is a place where
all of us can come and grow in our faith together.
In one of the churches I served, I
received a note from a church member who wanted me to know how much our church
meant to her. She shared how she was going through a really difficult time in
her life. She had been discouraged and feeling really down.
She went on to write that she decided to
come to the church late one night, because she knew that the church was a
special place for her. So, she parked her car in the lot where she had a full
view of the church building. As she sat in her car and focused on the church,
she was able to feel a sense of God’s peace and reassurance that God would help
her overcome the problems she was facing at the time. That church was a haven
of blessing and peace for her when she needed it the most.
There is something very special about
coming to church every Sunday and I’m not just referring to our hazelnut coffee
and pastries that we have here in between our worship services. God seems to
always show up in this place that we call church. No wonder that the Psalmist
tells us to praise God in the sanctuary.
So, the Psalmist answers the “where”
question. Where? In God’s sanctuary.
The Psalmist also answers the “why”
question. Why praise God?
For the why, we go to verse 2 of our
Psalm. “Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his
surpassing greatness.”
We are to praise God for his mighty deeds.
One of the reasons that this Psalm falls so close to Easter Sunday is because the
good news of God raising Jesus from the dead qualifies as one of those mighty
deeds. God raising Jesus from the dead ranks at the top of “The Might Deeds”
list.
When the Psalmist wrote this, he was
probably thinking about a number of mighty deeds over the course of Israel’s
history like when God parted the Red Sea to lead the Israelites to freedom, or
like when God led the people into the Promised Land. We often think of these
kinds of mighty deeds when we think about God.
Many of us have participated in small
groups during our recent season of Lent. These small groups are designed to
help us share with each other how God is at work in our lives.
Some people like to refer to God’s mighty
deeds as “God sightings” or “Closest to God” moments. They are also known as
“Thin Place” moments which refer to how heaven and earth often overlap each
other, creating a thin place and we experience God in a very real way through
our day to day living.
Where have you been made aware of God’s
presence in a very real way?
Several years ago, a man is getting ready
to head off for work. He is anxious
about many things and on top of that, he was running late, and he still needed
to drop off his two kids at the preschool.
And as he stands in front of the mirror in
his bedroom and is frantically putting on his necktie, he can’t help but
notice, as he looks over at his closet, that his little four year old girl has
taken the shoestrings out from several of his shoes, including the pair that he
was going to wear that day.
All he can think about is how this will
make him even more late for work. As he
continues to put on his necktie, he feels a tug on his pant leg. Annoyed and still in a hurry, he says to his
four year old, “Sweetie…Daddy doesn’t
have time for this. We’re going to be
late getting you to preschool.”
She tugs again at his pant leg a second
time and he says, “Please, not now.” She taps him on the leg yet again, and
this time, his four year old daughter points toward the middle of the bedroom
floor and with her eyes beaming, she says, “Daddy,
look! I made Jesus’ cross!”
And sure enough, there in the middle of
the floor were two of the shoestrings she had taken out of a pair of his
shoes. She had one over top of the
other, forming the shape of Jesus’ cross.
Thanks to a little girl who reminded her
daddy of the importance of Jesus’ cross, somehow, all of those many
distractions and worries of life didn’t seem so important to him anymore. In that unexpected holy moment, that
shoestring cross reminded him that Jesus Christ was his Lord and Savior.
And you know what? That day ended up being one of the best days
of my life, thanks to my daughter who reminded me of Jesus’ cross.
“Thin Place” moments, “Closes to Christ”
moments, “God sightings,” whatever you want to call them, happen to us all the
time. Children seem to notice them better than we adults. Sometimes we notice
them and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes, it’s only when we look back on
something that happened in our lives that we are able to recognize how God was
present in a very real way.
Why are we to be generous with our praise
to God? The Psalmist from Psalm 150 tells us. We are to be generous with our
praise because of God’s mighty deeds.
Well, that’s the answer to the “where” and
the “why” questions. What about the “how”
question?
The Psalmist gives us a list of musical
instruments to help us praise God. In
verses 3 through 5, we hear about trumpets, lutes, harps, tambourines, strings,
pipes, and cymbals. We even hear about dancing. But it's disappointing there's no cowbell listed here, and I really wanted some cowbell. You can't can't have enough cowbell!
Anyway...
Anyway...
It’s interesting to think about the
instruments that are listed in our Psalm.
It’s a rich variety which I think is intentional on the part of the
Psalmist. A tambourine. A harp.
Cymbals. Loud crashing cymbals at
that.
The Psalmist says that we are to offer our
praises to God in a variety of ways.
The Psalmist answers the question of “how.” How? We are to worship with a variety of
instruments to help us offer our praises to God.
And the final question. Who?
Who is to praise the Lord?
Verse 6 – “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!” That narrows it down, doesn’t it?
If you have a pulse, then you are welcome
to praise the Lord.
Our denomination, the United Methodist
Church has a great slogan which you might have seen on TV over the last few
years. “The United Methodist
Church: Open Hearts. Open Minds.
Open Doors.”
Our church is open to all people because
God’s invitation is offered to everyone!
Democrats. Republicans. Independents.
Undecided. “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!”
Long time Christian. New Believer.
Seeker. Agnostic. “Let
everything that breathes praise the Lord!”
Senior Citizen. High School Senior. College student. Preschool child. “Let
everything that breathes praise the Lord!”
White.
Black. Latino. Native American. “Let
everything that breathes praise the Lord!”
Rich.
Poor. Somewhere in between. “Let
everything that breathes praise the Lord!”
Methodist.
Pentecostal. Catholic. Non-Denominational. “Let
everything that breathes praise the Lord!”
Hymn lovers. Praise Singers. Organists.
Drummers. “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!”
Bobcats, RedHawks, Buckeyes,
Nittany Lions. “Let everything that
breathes praise the Lord.”
Not too long ago, I was having a
conversation with a member of another church and he said to me, “You know how you and I really like it when
someone shows their appreciation to us?
Now, just imagine how God feels when his people praise him every Sunday
in worship.”
One of the last things John
Wesley, the 18th century founder of Methodism said before he died
was, “I’ll praise my maker while I have
breath.” And he did.
I can’t think of a better ending to the
Book of Psalms. And it’s a perfect way
to end today’s sermon.
“Praise
the Lord!”
Be
Generous with Praise
Small Group Questions
Psalm 150
April 10, 2016
This past Sunday, our
worship theme centered on Psalm 150 which is a Psalm of praise.
Have someone read Psalm 150
or read it together as a group.
Pastor Robert shared a
story about a child who helped her father remember that God was with him at the
start of his stressful day.
Share a time when you were
having a stressful day and you were reminded that God was with you.
Psalm 150 reminds us
to praise the Lord often.
In what ways do you praise
the Lord throughout the week?
No comments:
Post a Comment